Allosaurus
''Allosaurus ''(al-OH-sore-US) (Marsh, 1877) meaning, "strange-lizard", was one of the largest Jurassic predators known, growing up to 33 feet (10 meters) long. It had a large skull with eye ridges, and long, flesh-rending claws. It ate many different dinosaurs, such as the ornithopod Dryosaurus, the stegosaurid Stegosaurus, and even young sauropods like Diplodocus. Due to it's large size and 'new-age' design, the previous apex Jurassic predator Ceratosaurus was outcompeted and replaced, but with a difficult competition with a giant megalosaurid named Torvosaurus. Luckily however, Saurophaganax is a larger Allosaurus species in which drove Torvosaurus to extinction. One particularly well-preserved specimen, nicknamed "Big Al", was found not too long ago in Wyoming. It had many different injuries from throughout its short, seven year life, yet surviving all but the last one, an infected toe wound. This would have left the animal unable to hunt, and it would have starved or died of thirst. Skull Allosaurus' skull was double hinged. This allowed it to open its mouth extremely wide, allowing it to have a huge bite radius. One hinge was near the front of the jaw like a snake's, and the other was near the back of the jawbone. However, recent studies seem to show that Allosaurus had a relatively low bite force, even less than the value of sharks and crocodiles, despite being much bigger. It seems that Allosaurus attacked like an axe, using its double-hinged jaw to open really wide and dropping the top part of its skull into its prey with a large amount of pressure while holding it steady with its strong arms. A constant repetition of this method would have led to a massive amount of blood loss and shock. It was a very efficient way of killing, and it's probably why Allosaurus was so successful as a hunter. In Popular Culture Allosaurus has appeared multiple times in the famous Walking With Dinosaurs series. It was featured in the special, The Ballad of Big Al. Allosaurus has been featured in three episodes of the History Channel series Jurassic Fight Club ''fighting two ''Ceratosaurus ''as three Allosaurus attack a ''Stegosaurus, however one gets killed as a herd of Camarasaurus come to drink the water but one gets stuck, as it gets the Allosaurus's ''attention. ''Allosaurus can also be found in the Dinosaur Digs expansion pack for the popular PC game, Zoo Tycoon. Allosaurus also was on a list of animals supossedly to be in the fourth Jurassic Park movie, however it isn't confirmed. Allosaurus has also been featured in the Jurassic Park park-builder sim Operation Genesis. '' ''Allosaurus appears in the game Dino Crisis 2 as a mid-game rival and in the arena as a fighter. Allosaurus ''also appears in ''Dinosaur King and Dinosaur Master. It also appears in Dinosaur Revolution. The main allosaur in the show has its jaw broken by the tail of a Dinheirosaurus. It also was shown to attack a Torvosaurus despite the size difference. Allosaurus appears in Planet Dinosaur ''where it fails on its first hunt for a ''Stegosaurus. It later kills a Camptosaurus, but unfortunately a Saurophaganax steals its prey. Gallery WWD allo.jpg Jfc allo.png|jfc allosaurus|link=allosaurus|linktext=dinosaurs Skull.jpg Allosaur skin.jpg WWD allo 2.jpg CM Allosaurus.jpg allosaurusNT.jpg allosaur.jpg Allosaurus head.jpg Allo_head.jpg Wwd45.jpg Wwd3.jpg Wwd2.jpg Wwd.jpg Category:Dinosaurs Category:Theropods Category:Carnivores Category:Jurassic dinosaurs Category:Saurischians Category:Carnosaurs Category:Large Carnivores Category:Dinosaurs of North America Category:Dinosaurs of Africa Category:Allosaurs Category:Dinosaurs of Europe Category:Apex predators Category:Crested dinosaurs